Do It Today, page 10
Be Great. Stay Great.
Look, you can be very smart, driven, humble, etc., but if you don’t stay that way — what’s it all worth? How often do you see people become successful only to squander their success? How many one-hit wonders have you seen? Exactly. Only the great ones are here to stay. And if you want to stay here too, you must never underestimate the power of repetition. Never think you’ve made it or that you’re smart enough. Because that mindset is what keeps you great.
How I Measure My Life
You can easily measure a business by looking at the numbers. Turnover, profit, costs, employee churn, etc. But how do you measure your life? There are no universal metrics to assess your life. So it’s up to every person to create their own way to measure where they are in life. Some do that by looking at how much they earn compared to their peers. Some look at how far they climbed the corporate ladder. Others measure themselves by how they look.
I have studied how the most successful thinkers of our time measure their lives. The answer is surprising. You rarely hear that successful people measure their life by the size of their bank account or any other conventional measure. Instead, people who‘re considered successful in the eye of society often look at these 3 factors:
Energy
Work
Relationships
I’ve experimented with improving all the three above things. What I’ve found is that they are all closely related. When I have high energy, I’m in a good mood, and when I’m in a good mood, I do better work. And when I do better work, I feel satisfied with my life so I can give more to the people in my life. And that improves my relationships. And what’s the secret to a good life? Good relationships. Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, and author of How Will You Measure Your Life? writes: “The single most important factor in our long-term happiness is the relationships we have with our family and close friends.”
When it comes to relationships, quality matters more than quantity. Though it’s easy to pick on people who are influenced by social media, I still think it’s worth saying: No one cares about how many followers or online friends you have.
Real relationships take a long time to grow. And they are also unconditional. Most relationships are not real. We only love someone until they, for example, change their views or gain a few pounds. Or we only invite friends to our birthdays as long as they go out with you and drink beer.
These types of conditional relationships are worthless. Real friendship and love are stronger than that. You support the people you love no matter what. That makes life rich.
1. Measuring Energy
Measuring your energy is easy. All you have to do is look at how you feel physically. I recently wrote about that specifically. What matters is that you find ways to increase your energy. You can start by asking yourself one question: What small thing can I do today that has a significant impact on my energy? Here’s something that is true for everyone:
Exercise every day — I lift weights four times a week, do two interval runs, and make sure I walk at least 30 minutes at a fast pace on the days I don’t work out.
Eat well — I don’t follow a specific diet. I eat meat, bread, pasta, and a bunch of other things that are supposed to be bad for you. But I feel great. I just don’t eat processed stuff, and I eat very little sugar (I like chocolate). I also don’t consume more calories than I burn.
That’s one part of the equation. When I do those two things every day, I feel great. And my energy is also high. As soon as I stop working out or start eating unhealthy, I feel down. That’s how I know this works. You can easily improve your energy by exercising more and eating well.
2. Measuring Work
When it comes to work, I don’t look at income, status, or other generic measures. Instead, I look at how much I can still learn. In other words: Have you reached your full learning potential? Why do I look at learning and not income? Because it matters more. Christensen puts it well in How Will You Measure Your Life?: “In order to really find happiness, you need to continue looking for opportunities that you believe are meaningful, in which you will be able to learn new things, to succeed, and be given more and more responsibility to shoulder.”
Career and life success is directly related to how much you learn. And more importantly: How much you keep learning. Education never ends. Also, income is directly related to your learning development. The more you learn, the more you earn. It’s true. Of course, there are limits to this statement. And knowledge must always be put into practice.
We’ve all heard about the smart people who’ve wasted their potential. To be successful, you must always act on what you know. Without action, knowledge is useless. But generally speaking, the more knowledge you have (from experience or studying), the more you can contribute to your company, colleagues, clients, etc. And contribution translates to income.
3. Measuring Relationships
What you’ll find is that the more you contribute to other people’s lives, the better your relationships will be as a result. And that final ingredient completes the circle of life. When you measure your relationships, only stick to yourself. Avoid the biggest mistake most of us make: We look at what others do for us. Otherwise, you risk that you start keeping score.
“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours,” as the late Wayne Dyer said. Instead of looking at how others treat you, measure how much time and energy you put into your relationships. That’s the only thing you can control. My experience is that when you make time for the people that matter to you, the relationships improve. And if they do not, the relationship was probably not meant to be. We simply have to move on. The real lesson here is that we always must focus on what we can control.
Our energy, our effort at work, and what we put into our relationships — these are all things we control. It’s one of the main lessons philosophers from all over the world and from all ages tell us. Look at your life. Make a quick assessment of how you feel. All you have to do now is to improve it.
Why You Should Live Like You’re Immortal
It seems like all my peers have this idea that being young is an excuse for not living a satisfying life. But millennials are not the only group of people who hide behind excuses. We all do. I get it. Taking on responsibilities in life is scary. It’s way cooler to have toast with avocado. But you know what’s also cool?
Building a meaningful career that you’re proud of.
Contributing to other people’s lives.
Creating a product or service that is useful.
Investing your money for your retirement.
“Yeah, but I’m still young.” “There’s always tomorrow!” C’mon. Stop hiding! What are you waiting for? To everyone out there that doesn’t feel fulfilled, I have one idea that I want to share:
Start living like you’re immortal.
Yes, I know it sounds weird. So give me two minutes to explain. Conventional wisdom says that life is not forever, right?
“Life is short!”
“YOLO!”
“Live now!”
And I agree with that as well. But when you live your life according to that philosophy, it doesn’t make sense to do anything that takes a long time to pay off. If you think that life is short, why on earth would you do hard things? It doesn’t make sense. From that perspective, it’s better to spend your money, go out every week, drink as much as you can, and live large.
Ask yourself: “What does all that lead to?”
It doesn’t take a scientist to answer that question. The answer is, “nothing.” Now, there’s also another perspective on living: That you’re here forever.
Think about it. How different would you live if I told you that you’re never going to die? When I look at myself, I used to live as if I were mortal. I’d spend my money on clothes, gadgets, holidays. But I also seemed to be in a hurry. I wanted to achieve a lot of things in my life. And preferably, very fast.
I also pursued many things at the same time. Just like a dog. Chasing every shiny thing out there. Or even chasing my own random ideas. But lately, I’ve adopted a different mindset. It’s an idea of, “What if I were immortal?” I know, it sounds like I’m working on a hyperbolic chamber that promises eternal life. But trust me, I’m not that delusional. I’m talking figuratively. The first time I got this idea was when I read one of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations: “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live properly.”
I’m particularly referring to the last part: Living properly. What does that mean? I think everyone has a different perspective. To me, living properly means that I’m satisfied with my life. That I can look myself in the mirror, and genuinely say, “I like my life.” Was I truly satisfied when I lived my life in the now? No, not really. I didn’t have a real career, or a house, or anything that I was proud of. And why was that? I was too focused on the now. I wanted things to happen fast.
“Before you know it, you’ll be dead!” Now, that mindset is fine to get started. Nothing works better than kicking someone in the butt by telling them they’re going to die. But once you’re working on building a LIFE, it’s not helpful to think like that. Being present is a great thing, but like many things in life, don’t overdo it.
That’s why I like to live like I’m immortal. Because when you live forever…
You have all the time in the world to build something.
You can make mistakes and learn from them.
There’s no pressure to make things happen fast.
You treat people with respect because other people will also be around forever.
This small tweak in my mindset has helped me to take a different view on life. I’m not afraid to look 10 or 20 years ahead. That helps me to make better decisions TODAY. For example, I’d rather save my money or invest it instead of spending it because I know that “future Darius” will benefit from that.
“But how about the present, Darius?”
Well, I talked about being satisfied, right? Odd enough, I’m more satisfied when I SAVE my money. Or when I eat healthy food or work out every day. When I think about this idea, I find it fascinating how well it works. We all know we’re going to die (I recently even wrote an article about it). That’s a good and bad thing.
Good because it gives us urgency.
Bad because we lose sight of the big picture.
How do you live? Like a mortal or immortal person? Whatever it is, I hope you’re satisfied with your life. Because at the end of the day, that’s what matters most.
The Power Of Compounding: You Can Achieve Anything, If You Stop Trying To Do Everything
Do you have a long list of goals, desires, and wants for your life? Do you want to learn more? Earn more? Improve your skills? Get the most out of your relationships? Live better?
All those things are good. Life is about moving forward and making consistent progress. However, there’s one important thing about all this working, hustling, striving, and achieving more: You can’t do everything at the same time. That’s common sense, right? You only have so much time and energy. So if you take on too many things, you end up spread too thin. Instead, it’s much more effective to focus your effort on one thing.
Success Adds Up
Real success happens when we focus on one thing at a time. The first time I discovered that idea was in high school. When I was preparing for my final exams, I decided to study only one subject at a time. And I only moved on to the next when I fully grasped the material.
I noticed that I could learn something way faster if I immersed myself in it for a few days. Most of my peers studied multiple subjects a day. I never like that approach because it’s too scattered. If I’m working on a project at work, I don’t pick up another big project. If I’m working on a new course for my blog, I don’t start writing a book at the same time. That strategy helps me to get things done quicker and better. Hence, I achieve much more when I give my attention to one thing.
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, authors of The One Thing, which is a great book about this same concept, said it best: “Where I’d had huge success, I had narrowed my concentration to one thing, and where my success varied, my focus had too.”
Are you working on a lot of things? Is your attention not on one thing? There’s a big chance that you will not achieve the best possible results. Or worse: You might fail if you try to achieve many things at the same time The reason is simple: Most of us believe that success happens all at once. Real life is different. Keller and Papasan put it well: “Success is sequential, not simultaneous.”
Things add up. You learn one skill. Then another. You finish one project. Then another. Over time, your accomplishments add up to form an impressive feat.
This is especially true for money. Most people earned their money over time. Few people make a big financial splash. Forget about the Conor McGregors and Evan Spiegels of this world. These are people who hit the career jackpot. But you don’t need special talent or skills to succeed in life. If you take the long road, achieve one goal after the other, and build up your wealth step by step, you are more likely to live a good life. It’s simple. And it always works. People who say it doesn’t just haven’t had the patience to apply it to their own life.
One of my mentors owns a few dozen properties, worth millions. He acquired his wealth over time. He’s in his sixties now. You see, things take time. And when you combine patience with compounding, you achieve the biggest results. And these are not extraordinary things. I’m not promising you a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics or that you’ll become the next Zuckerberg. Everyone can save money, improve their skills, and create wealth.
The Impact Of Long-Term Compounding
It’s incredibly corny example, but take Warren Buffett. This is how he built his wealth over time.
Source: dadaviz.com
Don’t look at the numbers (or random x-axis). Look at the relative growth. Between age 32 and age 44, Buffett improved his net worth by 1257%. That’s pretty exceptional growth over 12 years, right? Especially if you take into account that he lost a lot of money in his 40s. But that’s not the point here. Look at this. From age 44 to 56, Warren Buffett’s wealth increased by a ridiculous 7268% over a similar time period. And of course, this is his net worth and there’s always luck involved with these type of numbers.
Plus, his net worth is based on stock prices — which means a big portion of it could be all gone tomorrow. But still, it’s about the growth he achieved over time.
Another thing: Buffett acquired 99% of his net worth after he became 50. Think about all those spoiled idiots in their teens, twenties, and even thirties (me included), who complain about the slow progress of their career. This helps you to put things in perspective.
Anyway, there’s a lot of Warren Buffett porn on the internet. And a lot of people pretend you can become rich by investing in the stock market. All you need to do is to buy their course that contains all the secrets to wealth. Yeah right. It doesn’t work that way. Personally, I hate stocks, and I think normal folks should stay away from Wall Street. I prefer real estate. However, Buffett is the perfect example of sequential success. You can achieve big things with small actions, that build up over time.
This is not only true for money. The same concept applies to skills, health, and relationships. You don’t build a strong body in a day, month, or even a year. It takes years of consistent effort. Shortcuts don’t exist, no matter how ‘smart’ you work. For example, cyclists under the age of 28 rarely win big races like The Tour The France because it takes them years to build the strength, stamina, and mindset you need to win.
If you want to see the impact of compounding in your own life, it requires you to focus on one thing at a time (for every aspect of your life) and always look at the bigger picture. It comes down to this: You’ll get there if you put in the work. Who cares if it’s tomorrow or 20 years? It will happen. That’s all that matters.
Postscript
After spending hours of reading and editing my own articles of the past three years, I noticed that there are a lot of contradictions. I’m very pleased with that. A person who doesn’t contradicts himself is an idiot.
Life is not about what you know. It’s about what you don’t know. And we never know enough. That’s good news for the both of us. It means that until the day we die, we can keep learning.
Another thing I noticed is that I forgot about some of the things I wrote. “Did I write that?” It’s not that I’m impressed by my own writing. Far from it. I’m surprised by the amount of knowledge that we forget. The good thing is that I’m aware of this human flaw. We think we know a lot because we might be well read—but in fact, we forget more than we remember.
I will keep referring back to the things I’ve learned, and I will never assume I’ve “mastered” something. Because there is always more to learn.
Thanks for reading this book.
Please let me know your thoughts: darius@dariusforoux.com.
-Darius
Thanks For Reading
Thank you for taking the time to read this until the end. I appreciate that you decided to spend your time on this book, and not on the millions of other things that you could do. My goal with every piece of content I create is to share something I wish someone else had told me earlier.
